Dr. Michael Pease

Mike holds a PhD in Environmental Resources and Policy with a concentration in Environmental Policy and Administration from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

As a self-described "desert rat", Mike has always been interested in sustainability issues in semi-arid environments. His experience working with the Endangered Species Act and with water marketing has led to an unhealthy obsession with river basin management. He has worked in watersheds within Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, and now Washington.

Mike is a firm believer in an active pedagogy and is currently developing curriculum for all classes to involve either field-based projects or problem-based learning.

Select Publications:

• Pease, M., and Matthews, O.P. 2019. Borderless Commons Under Attack? Reconciling Recent Supreme Court Decisions with Watershed scale Management. Seattle Environmental Law Review. 9:1, 1-94.
• Pease, M., and White, C. 2018. Conduit to Tribal Justice? Unpacking Washington v. United States. Ecology Law Currents. 45, 200-208.
• Pease, M., Pérez-Lapeña, B. and Lant, C., 2018. Energy and water resource simulations for US geography undergraduates. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, pp.1-16.
• Pease, M. and Snyder, T., 2018. Active Water Resource Management: Pariah or Blueprint for Western Water Management? Journal of the Southwest, 60(4), 1014-1034.
• Pease, M. and Snyder, T., 2017. Model Water Transfer Mechanisms as a Drought Preparation System. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 161(1), pp.66-80.
• Pease, M. and Murray, J., 2014. Making Water Resource Decisions More" Informationally" Efficient: Development of a Geospatial Water Rights Decision Support System for Kittitas County, Washington. International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research, 1(2), p.4.
• Amato, V.J., Lightfoot, D., Stropki, C. and Pease, M., 2013. Relationships between tree stand density and burn severity as measured by the Composite Burn Index following a ponderosa pine forest wildfire in the American Southwest. Forest ecology and management, 302, pp.71-84.
• Matthews, O.P. and Pease, M., 2013. Tarrant Regional Water District v. Herrmann, et al. Brief of Amici Curiae; Supreme Court of the United States
• Pease, M., 2012. Water transfer laws and policies: tough questions and institutional reform for the western United States. Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, 4(2), pp.103-119.
• Pease, M. 2010. Constraints to water transfers in unadjudicated basins: The middle Rio Grande as a case study. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 144(1), 37-43.
• Matthews, O.P. and Pease, M., 2006. The Commerce clause, interstate compacts, and marketing water across state boundaries. Natural Resources Journal, pp.601-656.